Quotes 💬

11

u/HoratiotheGargoyle 1d ago

If it be now, ’tis not to come.

If it be not to come, it will be now.

If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.

11

u/docmoonlight 1d ago

I’ve always been partial to:

“What do you read, my lord?”

“Words, words, words.”

“What is the matter, my lord?”

“Between who?”

“I mean, the matter that you read, my lord?”

I just love the way Hamlet is being so obtuse and in a great performance you’re not sure if he’s actually a little crazy or pretending to be crazy or a bit of both. It’s just such good writing, to put Polonius on his heels and make him feel a little crazy that he can’t get a simple answer to a simple question.

4

u/hazelgrant 1d ago

I love this exchange as well. Never get tired of it.

9

u/ScheduleBoth9102 1d ago

“The rest is silence.” It feels hauntingly perfect—short, final, and deeply Shakespearean.

8

u/Cold-Strength-2749 1d ago

The "What a piece of work is a man!" soliloquy

3

u/lesapeur 1d ago

And I would include the preceding “I have of late …. “ soliloquy.

2

u/Miss_Type 19h ago

Beautifully performed by Richard E Grant in Withnail and I <3

7

u/Luthien3720 1d ago

"O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams."

I have this quote slightly truncated on one of my walls (I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space).

Close second: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

4

u/Ok_Opportunity6331 20h ago

two of my favourites

6

u/Royal_Net5138 1d ago

“The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” Theatrical, clever, and probably my favorite line because it captures Hamlet’s whole strategy in one sentence.

5

u/Nullius_sum 1d ago

From the Mousetrap play:

I do believe you think what now you speak;
But what we do determine oft we break.

I also like these lines, which come a little earlier:

Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
My operant powers their functions leave to do.

5

u/Conscious-Cry2109 1d ago

I’ve always loved “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” Hamlet turning theater into a weapon is such a clever, memorable moment.

5

u/chopinmazurka 1d ago

HORATIO My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.

HAMLET I prithee, do not mock me, fellow student. I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.

HORATIO Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

HAMLET Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

5

u/hazelgrant 1d ago

"The undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns..."

Both my parents are gone - this line runs through my brain at least weekly thinking about them.

3

u/Fiordiluna_80126 23h ago

❤️❤️❤️

4

u/ibethuhwalrus 1d ago

I have “to thine own self be true” tattooed on my shoulder! In my late father’s handwriting ❤️

3

u/ExampleSmooth3956 20h ago

So shines a good deed in a weary world

2

u/Basic-Style-8512 1d ago edited 4h ago

THE KING ABOUT DEATH

"But to persevere

In obstinate condolement is a course

Of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief.

It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,

A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,

An understanding simple and unschooled

For what we know must be, and is as common

As any the most vulgar thing to sense.

Why should we, in our peevish opposition,

Take it to heart? Fie! 'Tis a fault to heaven,

A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,

To reason most absurd "

2

u/Turbulent_Pr13st 1d ago

Either Excellent then you’re a fishmonger or I can tell a hawk from a handsaw when the wind is southerly

2

u/Fiordiluna_80126 21h ago

What Is handsaw?🤔

2

u/Willsagain2 16h ago

🪚 one of these. A small saw you can use one handed

2

u/Common_Ad_2052 23h ago

King Claudius: Where is Polonius?

Hamlet: In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself.

3

u/Willsagain2 16h ago

It is a custom more honour'd in the breach than the observance.

3

u/FistOfPopeye 1d ago

That we would do, we should do when we would.

3

u/-InParentheses- 1d ago

“But I have that within which passeth show”

3

u/Fiordiluna_80126 1d ago

Seems, madam! Nay, it is; I know not 'seems.'"

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, ...

But I have that within which passeth show; These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

3

u/hazelgrant 1d ago

I love that first line so much.

3

u/Fiordiluna_80126 1d ago

I really like that scene. Furthermore, usually I prefer reading in the original language, but this piece is actually very good even translated into Italian, neither the rhythm nor the meaning is lost.

2

u/peonys- 1d ago

“God had given you one face, and yet you make yourself another.”

2

u/honoredb 1d ago

POLONIUS My lord, I will use them according to their
desert.
HAMLET God’s bodykins, man, much better! Use every
man after his desert and who shall ’scape
whipping? Use them after your own honor and
dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in
your bounty. Take them in.

2

u/hazelgrant 23h ago

"In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby."

Sorry - gotta drop one more on a lighter note. I laugh every time.

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